I HAD SLEEPLESS NIGHTS OVER EXCHANGE RATE HIKES – Bawumia

“We were faced with how much higher it could go. We were faced with a very critical situation because we didn’t have enough foreign exchange reserves to meet this persistent demand.

“Today, you are seeing that in Kenya, they are facing significant shortage of foreign exchange reserves resulting in petroleum queues.

“So, we had to think outside the box to prevent Ghana from going through that situation… and this is where the thinking for gold-for-oil came in,” the vice president added.

The head of Government’s Economic Management Committee, however, noted that the quest to find a solution led to the conception of the government’s Gold-for-Oil policy.

”In my humble opinion, it is the most important macro-economic policy intervention to deal with the exchange rate depreciation, fuel price, and food price issues that we have had.

“We have not only seen a decline in prices of fuel from GH¢23.00 per litre to around GH¢12, but we have also seen stability in the exchange rate,” he noted.